This application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2002-21076 filed on Jan. 30, 2002 and No.2001-295271 filed on Sep. 27, 2001 which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic endoscope, and more particularly, to image processing of an electronic endoscope capable of displaying blood vessels inside the body of an examinee in an easily viewable condition.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic endoscope irradiates an object under observation with illuminating light to capture an image thereof through an objective optical system, takes in the image using an image pickup element such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and displays this object image on a monitor, etc. In recent years, this type of electronic endoscope incorporates a power scaling mechanism in the above-described objective optical system and displays the optically magnified object image. At the same time, the image is electronically magnified by the electronic zoom function, which allows details of a focused area to be clearly observed with the magnified image shown on the monitor, etc.